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Friday, June 2, 2017

The Circle Museum, a roadside treasure

On the side of a well-traveled road, near the eastern border of NY with Massachusetts, lies a hidden treasure, a roadside attraction, an outdoor sculpture park that is totally unadvertised, waiting to be discovered by passersby. My family and I first happened upon the Circle Museum, the brainchild of artist Bijan Mahmoodi, a little more than two years ago, while on our way to visit a waterfall. I blogged about the discovery in this post, here, written in September 2015.

A couple of days ago my husband and I were coming home from a drive (our destination will be a topic for another post) and decided to bypass highway traffic. Instead we took a detour to visit the sculpture park again. It was, again, worth the time.

The pic above shows just a tiny percentage of the fields full of Bijan's sculptures. Amazing stuff, whimsical, inventive, and compelling. And there's so many pieces, including many that have been made in the two years since we were there last. I look forward to returning again in the wintertime, to see the sculptures draped with sparkling white snow. I'll bet that its fabulous!

Bijan and my husband chatted for a while while I took pictures. He learned that Bijan had recently had surgery for cancer, but thankfully doesn't need chemo. He's been painting while he waits to be healed enough to build some more monumental scrap metal sculptures. Here's a couple of pics of his studio.

This gathering of strange little sculptures in a patch of weeds reminds me of an old overgrown graveyard. Maybe that was the intent?

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About Me

Hi, I'm Phyl and after 36 years as an art teacher, I am now officially retired, but that doesn't mean I'm done with art education. The truth is, I'm more involved now than ever before! I hope you'll visit me often as I share art lesson ideas, thoughts on art education, my own personal artistic and photographic endeavors, and tidbits about my family and the beautiful environment where we live.